The Élysée indicated on Tuesday that President Emmanuel Macron is “closely monitoring the situation” and “is intervening with the Danish authorities” to prevent the extradition to Japan of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, who was arrested in Greenland after being subject to an international arrest warrant.
Emmanuel Macron is “closely monitoring the situation” and “is intervening with the Danish authorities” to prevent the extradition to Japan of anti-whaling activist Paul Watson, the Élysée reported on Tuesday. The American-Canadian activist, founder of the NGO Sea Shepherd, 73 years old, has been living in France for a year. Targeted by an international arrest warrant issued by Japan, he was arrested in Greenland, a Danish autonomous territory, and is being held until August 15. The decision regarding his extradition is to be made by the Danish Ministry of Justice.
The parliamentary ecological group called on Monday for the President of the Republic to intercede with the Danish Prime Minister “to obtain his immediate release.” An online petition titled “Emmanuel Macron must demand the release of Paul Watson” has more than 388,000 signatures as of Tuesday.
An “illegal” arrest warrant, according to his lawyer
The activist was apprehended on his ship which had just docked Sunday in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, to refuel in order to “intercept” Japan’s new whaling factory ship in the North Pacific, the Captain Paul Watson Foundation (CPWF) stated in a press release. Japan is, along with Norway and Iceland, one of the three last countries in the world that still engage in commercial whaling.
According to CPWF, Paul Watson was arrested based on an Interpol Red Notice for past actions in Antarctica. “The Japanese arrest warrant is illegal. It violates all international treaties on human rights,” said lawyer François Zimeray, one of Paul Watson’s attorneys, to AFP. Paul Watson was wanted by Japan for causing damage and injury during two incidents that occurred in the Southern Ocean in 2010 against a Japanese whaling ship.
